I would firstly like to ask our readers to ignore Pro’s first bit of spelling errors in R1 (“Please state your ca”). Therefore, I’d like to ask voters to assume that the S&G vote to be a tie for now.

My resolution: Co-ed Schools are better than those that are single-sex.

This topic has been debated over professors, teachers and principals for many years. Yet, the solution is still unclear. As of this debate, I am arguing for co-ed schools over single-sex schools. With that said, I will now begin with my arguments:

Contention 1: Maturity with members of the opposite sex

We can logically conclude that members from a coeducational school are generally more understanding of their opposing sex than those who are in a single-sex school. This doesn’t apply to students who have no siblings, relationships or are homophobic. It applies to the vast majority of students with any form of schooling. A sibling only has one personality, a girlfriend or a boyfriend only possess one personality. One must be able to understand and cope with members with different personality types to be counted as mature. A clear example can be shown here from recounting the words of a female college student who studied in an all-girls school:

“Boys were exotic creatures for us. We only met them inside the pages of books. In college, where they appeared in human form, we had no idea what to say to them.” [1]

Students from single-sex schools are generally more immature (males in particular) when they face people of the opposing sex. They feel awkward, say stupid things and can’t talk to them like a real person because they don’t feel comfortable. With this point, how can they have a proper relationship? (leaving aside gay and lesbian relationships) Who wants to have a relationship with someone immature, let alone, live (if it comes to marriage) with them?

Contention 2: More Diverse Friendship types

This is a pretty obvious point that I don’t see can see as refutable by Pro. Co-ed students generally have a more diverse friendship than single-sex school students. Males aren’t as pressured to live up to the stereotypical muscular body build and females aren’t expected to live up to their stereotypes either. Guys are able to able to talk to girls with very feminine personalities and girls can expand their social life with guys with the typical masculine personalities.

More diverse friendship types would supposedly lead to bigger and better social life, which is important to have for school students as they progress in life. The logic behind this reasoning is that once you are in the working force, you must be able to deal with anyone that you work with, work for and assign work to. We do not live in a utopian environment where everyone single person lives up to your expectations. Going back to my point, the gender difference usually poses a particularly bias towards some personality types. For example, you will find more try-hard types of guys then girls and you will find more gossiping types of girls than guys.

Contention 3: Co-ed school provide better education

It has been proven that the education provided in Co-ed schools is actually better than those of single-sex schools. The following source [2] proves that being in a mixed classroom with both boys and girls in beneficial to the education of the students. Although the source's dominant idea is that “boys achieve higher grades with female peers”, we can still conclude that girls can achieve better marks with male peers. After all, the first paragraph of the given text tells us so.

This chart of the NSW HSC top scoring schools of 20120(two years ago) [3]

This chart shows the best scoring schools for the Higher School Certificate (an important test for high school students). The chart displays the best scoring schools within the state of New South Wales (Australia). The best scoring school for the HSC is James Ruse Agricultural School which happens to be co-educational. Perhaps we should also point out the massive difference percentage-wise between Rank #1 and Rank #2. James Ruse smashes North Sydney Girls High School (clearly a single-sex high school) by a clean 18.8%! How can you justify the superiority with the education of co-ed school to single-sex schools now?

I totally disagree with the first argument that Famer has put down. It does matter if you don't socialise
during your school, reason being is that you are able to go to university then that is co-ed so you have all the time in the world to socialise and get to know the opposite sex.

Contention 1: Students in Single-sex school success more than Co-ed Schools
Studies have shown that it gives students a better chance to do well in subjects where one sex or the other traditionally does better. Girls sometimes think it is not feminine to do well in maths and science. Boys sometimes think it is not masculine or 'macho' to do well in expressive subject such as English. If they are in segregated class, they may not be so affected by these ideas, and so be more likely to perform at their best. Studies from the National Association for Single Sex Public Education.
Percentage of students scoring proficient on FCAT ( The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test )
Boys in Co-ed classes: 37% scored proficient
Girls in Co-ed classes: 59% scored proficient
Girls in Single- sex classes: 75% scored proficient
Boys in Single- sex classes: 86% scored proficient

Contention 2 : Opposite Sex Studies at different rates
Another main argument for segregated education is the fact that boys demand more of their teachers' time. Firstly boys need more discipline because they are more likely to misbehave in class. Secondly they get more attention than girls do, because they tend to speak up more in class. If girls are educated separately, they might have more of their teachers' time, and so learn faster.

Contention 3 : Teacher that favour one sex over the other
Teacher frequently favour their own gender when teaching co- educational classes; for example, male teacher can undermined the process and confidence of girl students by refusing to chose them to answer question etc. A recent study by the American Association of University Women found that ‘gender bias is a major problem at all levels of schooling', asserting ‘girls are plagued by sexual harassment and neglected by sexist teachers, who pay more attention to boys'.[1] As a result, girls tend to fall behind their male counterparts.

I will firstly respond to Pro’s arguments with a few quotes and rebuttals.

DEFENCE

“It does matter if you don't socialise during your school, reason being is that you are able to go to university then that is co-ed so you have all the time in the world to socialise and get to know the opposite sex.”

It appears Pro has made a self-contradicting statement in response to my argument. He claims that it does matter if you don’t socialise, yet you have opportunities when you go to university. I can personally see Pro as trying to have either of the following:

It does matter if you don’t socialise during your school, reason being is that you won’t be able to socialise as much when you are in university, when you have all the time in the world.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t socialise during your school, reason being is that you will have all the time in the world to socialise when you are in university.

The first of the suggested statements only support my case, so we can assume that this is not the case being put forth by Pro. Therefore, we can assume that Pro was following the second suggested statement. Even if this assumption was correct, it is flawed in a number of ways.

First off, the main benefit that I clearly outlined in the second round for socialising with your opposing gender more is to develop high levels of maturity with them. If you study middle school, as well as high school and make it into university and decide to start a serious relationship, chances are, your girlfriend/boyfriend won’t take you that seriously if you are not mature. As for me, I would prefer to have a serious relationship with a girl who studied for 6 years in a co-educational school to a girl who studied for 6 years in a single-sex school.

Second thing to note, which similar to the one pointed out above; good social skills are developed when you are young and are difficult to change when you progress through life. The same applies to bad social skills. If they are developed when you are young, these skills will most likely carry on throughout the rest of your life, and will become a burden to try and change.

The third and last thing to note is the actual graduation rate for high school students. [1] In America, the success rate for high school students who manage to graduate to university in year 2009 was 75.5%. This means, a surprising 24.5% of students do not make it into university. Where will the social life of these poor souls go to?

Other than that, most of my arguments have been ignored. Therefore, we can accept my arguments to be counted as conceded and are still standing strong in the face of my opponent to rebut to in his next argument.

REBUTTALS

“Students in Single-sex school success more than Co-ed Schools”

My opponent’s first contention about students in single-sex schools having a higher success rate than Co-ed school is a direct contradiction of my 3rd contention in the previous round. My arguments and reasoning for third argument is so far conceded, but I will now respond to Pro’s argument.

Pro has provided us his sources from the “FCAT” (an acronym of The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test). So far, I’d like to point out that although Pro has provided some stats that he most likely found, he has failed to provide any sources to prove of his claim. With this point put forth, we can accept this as a tentative truth until he proves he did not make up his sources.

A second thing that I would like to point out is “Studies from the National Association for Single Sex Public Education.” I am astounded that Pro would have mentioned this. This clearly proves the huge bias of his source, whether they are true of or not is another matter. A study from the National Association for Single Sex Public Education is clearly going to try and support itself as much as possible. With this point, we have to seriously consider the reliability of Pro’s source.

“Opposite Sex Studies at different rates”

Well, considering that Pro has not provided any sources for his claim, we have to, for now, accept this merely as an opinion. And with this, as an opinion, it is very hard to justify exactly what he is talking about. Firstly, he claims that boys generally misbehave more during class. This is really hard to justify, as there are plenty of examples of boys who study diligently and are quite during class. He also claims that boys generally get more attention than girls do, because they tend to speak up more in class. In what context is Pro referring to? Is he referring to a all-boys school that are is known for a reputation for having rebellious boys and an all-girls school known to have the quietest classrooms that have ever existed?

“Teacher that favour one sex over the other”

Well a simple solution for this problem is that sexist teachers can just teach at a single-sex school. I am amazed that sexist teachers would teach at a co-education school. I wish Pro would actually provide his reference along with his citation point.

For now, I have no more arguments to put forth. Most of my arguments have so far been conceded, so I will wait for Pro’s response in his following argument.